Teenage Pregancies

Teenage Pregnancy - Are we having a moral panic? Well well, who says the family is a boring topic? The case of Alfie Patten the other week seems to have provoked quite a bit more coverage on the topic. As The Guardian reported last week, such reports aren’t always quite so simple as they seem.

Today and yesterday the saga continues, with an interesting episode of The Moral Maze and a nice interview with nightclub owner Peter Stringfellow on today’s Daily Politics.

It’s all kicking off, but before your class erupts into debate lets try to tie down a few sociological issues. Are we in the midst of a (nother) moral panic about teenage pregnancy? Stan Cohen, who developed the concept, said that moral panics always involved several stages. First there was the identification of a social problem. It is reported in a sensationalised and distorted fashion leading to further reports and a spiral of official action. All of these stages act only to ‘amplify’ and distort the original problem.

Another useful concept which can be applied here is Howard Becker’s notion of moral entrepreneurs. These are people who have the power to create or enforce rules, and they can in effect ‘profit’ by drawing attention to deviance and infractions of society’s rules.

Are we seeing a moral panic about teenage pregnancy? Who, if anyone, do you think is acting in the role of moral entrepreneur in the current round of reporting.